


The world around us is burning but we're so cold

by somethinginmywhiskey



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies), Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Bamf Josh, Guns, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mad Max: Fury Road - Freeform, Past Abuse, Post-Apocalypse, Rape/Non-con - Freeform, Tyler lived in a harem, Violence, bookworm!Tyler, but not between Josh and Tyler, he has read everything about the world but has never seen it, shy!tyler
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-05-24
Packaged: 2019-05-13 09:23:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14746157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somethinginmywhiskey/pseuds/somethinginmywhiskey
Summary: Josh has nothing left to lose, it's only him and his car in a world turned into a nuclear wasteland. And he has only one goal: to revenge his siblings' deaths.Tyler has led a comfortable, yet horrific life in the Imperator's harem. When he gets the opportunity to escape, he is willing to risk everything he's got for his freedom.They didn't mean to cross paths in the desert.(loosely inspired by Mad Max: Fury Road)





	The world around us is burning but we're so cold

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work in English. I used to write in my native language a few years ago. So please tell me if you see mistakes, it only helps me! 
> 
> A big thank you goes to my best friend who was my beta reader and cheerleader for this first chapter. I hope you all enjoy it and want more! :)

Josh felt like the sun was burning particularly unyielding today, the roof of his truck was already too hot to touch. Since a few days he hadn’t stopped to take basic care of his vehicle, or himself. He needed to check the oil soon and he hadn’t had much gas left either. Also, he would’ve killed for something to eat that wasn’t a protein bar he stored under his seat. Water would be great, too. Jesus, if he didn’t reach a bigger city soon he was seriously fucked. But still, nothing but sand before his eyes. The horizon disappeared behind the enormous dunes many miles in the distance and he had no clue where he was going, in the first place. 

He decided to try out if his radio worked. If he could receive radio he probably wasn’t that far away from civilization. Of course there was nothing but white noise coming from his speakers while he fiddled with the buttons. He decided to leave it on anyways, white noise was better than no noise. No noise meant that he had to listen to his own thoughts, and that was something that would do him no good, either way. If he listend to his thoughts, the only thing he would hear would be the screams of his sisters that haunted him at night anyway. No need to torture himself during the day, too. 

He was driving directly towards a large dune when he decided to drive around it instead. The slope would put too much strain on the engine now, especially in the heat. Driving around would save no gas, but anxiety. 

Josh was already regretting his decision because he didn’t have that great of a sense of orientation in the first place and driving around that dune instead of straight towards it fucked with his direction. If there was sand all around you, how did you navigate? His compass was also no help because he never learned how to read it properly. He was a fucking bad desert dweller and he knew it. His brother had always been the one to navigate them through the radioactive wasteland that North America had become. He had sat shotgun next to Josh for the first years after the big boom that killed half America. After their parents had died when the atom bomb came crashing down on the continent, Josh and his brother had to take care of their sisters. Jordan knew how to survive and Josh knew how to fight. Using shotguns had come scarily easy to him, having to drive through nuclear wasteland and sand didn’t diminish his determination to protect his family. And when all Dun siblings had piled into Josh’s truck to escape the hell they were living in, Josh didn’t question his brother who started navigating him to the Green Place, a small oasis Jordan believed to exist near the former border to Mexico. 

The problem was that people started to accustom themselves far too easily in their new environment. The United States of America had collapsed, literally and in the sense of law and order. As soon as people had realized that money no longer held worth, they began to pile up goods like food and water, then guns and bullets, then vehicles, oil and gas. Bullets and gas, that was what people lived off these days and Josh did not have much left of either. 

He looked through his rearview mirror and sighed. Sand, wherever he looked, nothing but sand. He checked his speed and was once again glad that his car had been built in Germany once upon a time. No American fabricate would last that long at that speed, most engines would start coughing after a few miles.

Suddenly, a figure of a vehicle appeared at the horizon in front of him. Josh hit the brake with all his force. Shit. He couldn’t see what kind it was, let alone if it bore the emblem of the Imperator. 

Josh had been on the road for almost eight years now, two of which along with his siblings and then another year with only his brother before he had been killed, too. In the first years after the bomb, most people looked after themselves, some formed small groups to travel together. Then some people started to build up small towns again, sharing their goods, electing people to rule them. That got out of hand quickly. Josh had lived for about a year with a small group of people in a township near the place his old hometown had once been. But people got greedy and history liked to repeat itself. 

Long story short, dictators started to rise, people got obedient, full of hope for a better life after the apocalypse. Of course that didn’t end well, or didn’t end at all. It only got worse, truth be told. Some leaders had alliances with each other now, to trade goods, but life was miserable in those small dictatorships. 

The worst of all, in Josh’s humble opinion, was a guy that called himself the Imperator. It didn’t get cornier than that. He had apparently survived the strike of the atom bomb only barely and still could only breathe through a tube. Rumor had it that he thought of himself as the ultimate race and practiced inbreeding. Kind of fucked up, if you asked Josh.

And now there was a big vehicle in front of him and the only trucks he knew that were this big, belonged to the Imperator. But it wasn’t moving and there only seemed to be one. Josh yanked his glove box open and counted his bullets. If they started shooting at him he had to defend himself. He saw about three full magazines worth of bullets for his M16 and a handful for his semi-automatic. He probably had also two or three grenades left in the back. 

He really didn’t want to do that but he actually had no other choice. Killing people was as normal to him today as going to school once had been. Sad, but actually true. Josh did know his way around guns, could shoot like a motherfucker, even from a great distance. Not that this skill could have saved his siblings, he could not have protected them if he had wanted to. Violently, the thoughts he tried so desperately to suppress came crashing down on him like a wave. Abi’s scream as she got dragged out the car window by a gruesomely deformed war boy who then just hurled her behind himself so she got run over by the one of the Imperator’s trucks. Josh knew in that exact moment that he would never forget that image of her screaming his name. If Jordan hadn’t been there with him, he’d probably bitten off that war boys head or something. In that moment the three sibling had sworn that they would take revenge on the Imperator, and now Josh was the only one left to keep their oath. 

He shook himself free from his memories. He needed to concentrate. There were two options of how this encounter with the truck in front of him could go. Either they would attack him or the other way around. Josh knew that he wouldn’t survive another two days in the desert if the didn’t get ahold of water and gas and so he decided that attack would be the best defense and started his engine again. Slowly he drove towards the truck in front of him. Nothing seemed to happen, the truck didn’t move, he saw no war boys and he didn’t hear gunshots. Maybe the truck had been left there for some reason and nobody was there at the moment. Josh stopped again. It probably would be more discreet to approach the truck on foot. He scrambled in the back seat to retrieve his rifle and gun, he also grabbed one of his grenades, for good measure, and shoved it in a pocket of his cargo pants. He tucked the semi in his shoulder holster he started wearing after Jordan had shot himself in the right ass cheek because he had always carried his gun in the back of his pants, tucked under the waistband of his jeans. He would carry the rifle directly in his hand, ready to shoot. Josh kicked open the door of his truck and jumped onto the sand. He immediately felt the sun burning his skin, the sand restricting his breathing. He covered his mouth and nose with his bandana and strode forwards.

The Imperator’s truck was still a few miles away and Josh had to walk uphill, so it was no wonder that he started panting only a few feet away from the massive vehicle. He stopped to calm down his heart rate, his breathing. He could not be out of breath for what he was about to do. 

Suddenly, he heard a small high-pitched sound coming from the other side of the truck. Josh almost didn’t recognize it as a giggle. Laughter was rare in the desert. He froze. There were definitely people in this truck but why the fuck were they taking a break in the middle of the desert? Fucking idiots. He readjusted the hold of his rifle, mustered up all his courage and creeped around the truck towards the giggling. 

He had expected a group of rebellious war boys, what he saw was a whole other thing. 

Only a few steps away from him was a small group of young boys, probably only a few years younger than him, showering themselves with a hose attached to the truck. The all wore completely white expensive clothes and had very neatly trimmed brown hair. Then he saw two large metal constructions lying on the ground and one of the boys standing next to them. He held a large side cutter in his hands, apparently to cut off the metal construction he was wearing around his waist. Josh realized that it was a chastity belt the boy tried to get rid off. He was standing there, staring like an idiot at the scene in front of him before he got snapped out of it by a scream. The next thing he saw was a young man wearing a trucker head stumbling out of the driver’s cab holding a gun. “Hold the fuck up!“, Josh belted. “Hands up!“ 

The boys clad in white let go of the hose and put their hands up, eyes wide and terrified. “Let go of that gun, dude!“ The man in the trucker hat chucked his gun away and raised their hand. “You“, Josh pointed with his gun at one of the boys. “Water!“ 

For a moment the boy looked perplexed and then grabbed the hose and pointed it at Josh. Josh opened his mouth and let himself get showered with the cold water for a moment before the boy turned the hose off. “Now! Everyone get a step closer!“

He shouldn’t have said that because one of the boys literally flung himself at Josh, wrestling him to the ground. Panicked, Josh started firing blindly into the air, not seeing anything while he got man handled onto his stomach. Two quick hands disarmed him while he felt his hands getting tied together behind his back. Josh was thrashing, screaming into the sand. He had gotten cocky when he had realized that none of the boys carried a gun with them, he had let his guard down enough to get himself captured by some boys gone rogue. 

Then he was hauled on his feet and nuzzled with his own bandana and before he could react in any way he felt the sharp edge of a knife at his throat. “Now, Mad Max, you didn’t expect that, did you?“, a voice whispered in his ear. Josh was still thrashing, trying to get free, when he felt a soft hand replacing the knife at his throat. “You’re going to listen to us now“, the voice said and with that Josh was being kicked in the back of his knees, causing him to buckle to the ground. On his knees, hands tied and nuzzled he was kneeling in the sand. One boy behind him, keeping him in check, the two other ones still standing next to him eyes wide.  
“Let go, Pete“, a voice said and Josh looked up and saw that the voice belonged to the man with the trucker hat. He felt the boy behind his back taking a step to the side while trucker cap leaned forward to remove Josh’s nuzzle. “Who are you?“, he asked.

“What do you wanna hear? My name or where I’m from?“, Josh spat back. Trucker Hat chuckled. “I see that you are a desert dweller. What’s your name and can we trust you?“

Josh snorted. “Josh, not that names are worth much in the desert. I don’t know if you can trust me, I wanted to raid your truck for water and gas, didn’t expect a crowd to be honest.“

“Okay, Josh. I’m Patrick, that bad ass motherfucker who captured you is Pete and the others should introduce themselves if they see the need to do that. Do you know where we are from?“ Josh nodded. “Obviously from the township of the Imperator. Am I a prisoner of war or what’s your deal?“

“Untie him, Pete“, Patrick said and Pete whipped out his knife to cut the strick around Josh’s hands. Immediately, Josh was on his feet, looking around for his guns. 

“You have to understand that we cannot give them back to you, right?“, Patrick said. “You can have some water, gas if you need and then you need to leave.“ 

“You’re on the run, aren’t you?“, Josh asked. “You’re fleeing from the Imperator.“

Patrick sighed. “There is no point in denying it. We left two days ago and they haven’t found us yet but it needs to stay this way.“

“You’re not a war boy.“

“No, obviously not“, Patrick said. “And they aren’t either. We’re on the run and we are fucked if they find us because we don’t have any weapons.“ He looked at Pete holding Josh’s rifle and gun, toying with the grenade. “Well, now we do but that will be no use if they actually find us.“

“I’m asking again, what’s your deal? You could’ve easily shot me by now and saved you a whole lot of trouble. Who are you and who are these boys? I’m being fucking honest with you here, man. I’m no danger to you right now. My truck is parked a few miles from here and now I don’t have guns, water or gas. Why are you helping me?“Josh was very close to being absolutely furious right now. 

“You’re staying the night. At sunrise we are leaving and so are you, no questions.“, Patrick stated and stomped back to the driver’s cap, Pete trailing behind him. 

“Jesus”, Josh muttered to himself.

“You still want that water?”, the boy holding the hose asked him. 

Josh nodded. “Sure.”

The boy made to steps in Josh direction and handed him the hose. “Clean yourself up, drink. Unfortunately we don’t have spare clothes”, he stuck out his hand to Josh. “I’m Brendon, by the way.” 

Josh nodded again. “Yeah, I bet you caught my name.” Brendon huffed. “I’m gonna look if I find some food”, and left. 

Josh shrugged and started to take off his clothes he could at least wash them and let them dry them in the sun. The wouldn’t take longer to dry than for him to clean himself. He was stepping out of his pants when he heard a choking sound behind him. Josh turned around and saw that the boy with the side cutter was still standing in the exact same spot where he had been when Josh had arrived. He had not moved an inch. He was still wearing that medieval looking chastity belt around his waist.  
“You need help with that?”, Josh chuckled.

The boy grunted something and then handed the side cutter over to Josh. “If you would be so kind.”

“Turn around”, Josh said and inspected the construction the boy was wearing. “You probably only need to cut the sides, you know.” He placed the side cutter at the boy’s hip and snipped the metal. Admittedly it wasn’t that easy but the boy also looked like he head never used his muscles for something more than opening a water bottle. 

The belt fell into the sand with a clink and the boy tucked up his pants faster than Josh could register. “Thank you”, he stuttered and kicked the torture device away. Josh handed him the side cutter back and just wanted to turn back to the hose as the boy said “My name is Tyler.” very quietly before rushing towards the truck. 

Josh chuckled to himself as he began to wash his clothes. “Nice to meet you, Tyler.”


End file.
